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American Eagle Gold is drilling NAK, a copper, gold and molybdenum porphyry in the Babine district of central British Columbia, roughly 80 km northeast of Smithers and across Babine Lake from Topley Landing. In this interview, I sat down with CEO Anthony Moreau and Neil Prowse, the company’s exploration lead, and the conversation covered the current 55,000 metre drill program, the first six assay holes of the season, plans for a first resource estimate, the withdrawn takeover bid for Pacific Booker Minerals, the treasury, and marketing plans.

TL;DR

They closed the Eric Sprott financing, have roughly $55 million in the bank plus receivables, and says that funds this season’s 55,000 metres plus a repeat program next year, taking them well into 2028 and paying for both a maiden resource estimate and a preliminary economic study. Three rigs are turning, 17 holes are done and they are on holes 18 to 20, with drilling meant to run without an off season through to at least April. Six holes have been released so far. Management says the plan is a maiden resource this cycle, ideally dovetailing into a PEA toward the end of next season, and that the real question is not whether they can produce a resource but how much of it lands in the indicated category rather than inferred. They walked away from the Pacific Booker bid after the target’s share price ran up, and say NAK stands on its own. Next assays are roughly three to four weeks out.

What have they done for shareholders lately?

Tony’s version: the stock went from around $0.70 at the time of the financing to about $1.25, with a market cap near $260 million and what he calls a new floor in the $1.20 to $1.30 range. They closed the Sprott placement, roughly doubling cash, started the season on time with three rigs, and are drilling as many metres this year as they have cumulatively at NAK to date. They dropped the unsolicited offer for Pacific Booker (they had offered roughly 10% of American Eagle for Morrison) about six weeks in, after volume pushed Booker’s price toward $3 and the value case disappeared. Separately they did a deal with Eagle Plains Resources that increased the land package by close to 500%, picking up ground previously held by Booker and, before that, Noranda. On results, hole 83 returned a gold-heavy near surface interval, hole 87 hit over 1% copper equivalent starting around 552 metres downhole inside a roughly kilometre-long interval of about 0.25% copper and 0.12 g/t gold, hole 88 returned 555 metres of about 0.16% copper with 0.06 g/t gold, holes 84 and 86 tested west into a broad lower grade halo with local copper punctuations, and hole 89 stepped 250 metres east into the southern stock margin with roughly 400 metres of near surface material that Tony described as over 0.4% copper equivalent and Neil described as about 0.2% copper and 0.13 g/t gold over the upper 411 metres. They rushed 89 out on its own because they considered it material, and a rig is now dedicated to that south and east area.

How much money do they have and what are they spending it on?

Roughly $55 million in the bank plus receivables at the start of the season, following the closed Eric Sprott financing, which Tony says doubled the treasury. He describes existing strategic holders as Teck and South32, and says the company raised around $70 million from Teck, South32 and Sprott without bank involvement, meaning no discounted paper or warrants but also no institutional syndicate behind them. Spending priorities are 55,000 metres this year and another 55,000 next year (roughly 120,000 metres funded over about 24 months), the maiden resource estimate, a scoping study including about 10 metallurgical samples, and a modest marketing budget. On G&A, his claim is that overhead is covered by interest earned on the cash, so drilling money goes in the ground.

Upcoming catalysts

Technical: assay results from the remaining completed holes, with Tony and Neil both guiding to roughly three to four weeks before the next release and saying results will come in bursts tied to lab batching rather than on a fixed schedule; step-out holes to the north, east and south of the Babine stock, plus follow-up on hole 89, running through the end of 2026 and into 2027; about 10 metallurgical samples submitted by the end of September for a scoping study, alongside a gold deportment and mineralogical study; a maiden resource estimate with modelling work starting in 2027, ideally followed by a preliminary economic study toward the end of next season.

Operational: three rigs running continuously to at least April, with trail rehabilitation opening access to the northern and eastern sides of the property.

Corporate: conference and institutional marketing in Denver and Beaver Creek, an effort to bring a bank in as a marketing partner, and continued paid media. Tony said insider buying is unlikely in the near term because of pending material results and the cash cost of the options he recently exercised.

Risks

The obvious one is assay risk, since only six of a planned roughly 80 holes have been reported and the step-outs are into ground with very little prior testing. Grade is the open question, and Neil was clear that whether the current grades work depends on metallurgy and recoveries that have not been tested yet. There is overburden across parts of the property, thicker on the western side and thinner uphill to the east, which feeds into strip ratio and pre-strip questions. The first resource may come back weighted toward inferred rather than indicated, which the market rewards less. Tony’s own stated worry is valuation, that at around $260 million another rerating likely requires a new discovery or a meaningful expansion of the existing one, and that the company still lacks the institutional following that a bank-led financing would have brought.

American Eagle Gold CEO Interview

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